LTFRB to pursue anti-corruption campaign

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) will be relentless in its campaign to cleanse its ranks of corrupt officials and employees, its chief said.

LTFRB Chairman Martin Delgra III assured the public that it will continue to investigate incidents of corruption in the agency and conduct lifestyle checks on officials and employees.

"I am saddened and outraged that there are still some persons in the LTFRB who are still involved in corrupt practices, despite President (Rodrigo) Duterte's call for a corruption-free government in his administration," Delgra said in an interview with reporters on the sidelines of the launch of 'Oplan Isnabero' earlier this week as 44 of its employees either resigned or were terminated due to their alleged involvement in corruption.

Among the sacked employees were National Capital Region (NCR) regional director Rodolfo Jaucian and four of his staff members for issuing franchises to public utility vehicles (PUVs) despite a moratorium declared in 2003. They were found to have been maintaining a "ghost database", which was being used for the revival of expired franchises of PUVs in exchange for huge amounts of money.

In a statement, the LTFRB clarified that the 44 employees will not be reassigned to Mindanao. Only two employees of LTFRB-NCR have office orders transferring them to the region. As for regional director Jaucian, the agency has ordered that he will be transferred to the Career Executive Service (CES) pool.

Meanwhile, the LTFRB has enforced a stricter registration of non-employees entering the building to address the problem of fixers in the agency. LTFRB employees are also required to fill up official and business slips to keep them from delaying their work.

President Duterte has earlier stated that he fired 92 employees of the LTFRB and Land Transportation Office (LTO) to crack down on corruption in these agencies. The President previously identified the LTFRB and LTO as among the most corrupt government agencies.

He has also directed government departments that they process permits and other documents being requested by the private sector in no more than a month.

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